Will Smith

30-Year-Old CatcherC

Los Angeles Dodgers

2025 Stats

AVG

.367

RBI

Rest-of-Season Projections

AVG

RBI

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2025 Fantasy Outlook

A player named Will Smith has now been in each of the last five World Series with this version book-ending the three consecutive appearances by his name twin on the mound. Smith finished the season as a top-five catcher and within the top 70 overall while resuming full-time catching duties. Smith was able to take days off at DH before the arrival of Shohei Ohtani, but that luxury was not there in 2024, so Smith caught in 121 games and appeared in seven more. His numbers did have a bit of a fall-off in the second half, no doubt in part to the resumption of all the time spent donning the infamous tools of ignorance. Smith's .272/.346/.492 first half line with 15 homers fell to .206/.295/.331 after the break. His .248 final average was the lowest of his career, but still a few points above the league average, mitigating that issue. Ohtani will not need to take all the DH time in 2025, so some half-days off should be available to Smith to keep him fresher throughout the season. After all, this is the only player with catcher eligibility who has had at least 500 plate appearances each of the past four seasons. You cannot beat that type of consistency and volume from a position of such scarcity. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

Rest of Season

Overall Rank

Dynasty

From Preseason

#93

ADP

League Majors

Bats R

Throws R

40 Man Yes

Height 5'10"

Weight 195

DOB 3/28/1995

Born Louisville, KY

College Louisville

Drafted 1st Rd 2016 LAD

Resting Wednesday

CLos Angeles Dodgers

April 16, 2025

Smith is not in the Dodgers' starting lineup against the Rockies on Wednesday, Kirsten Watson of Spectrum SportsNet LA reports.

ANALYSIS
Smith will take a seat Wednesday while Austin Barnes starts behind home plate and bats ninth against Rockies right-hander German Marquez. Smith has gone 6-for-12 with one home run and five RBI over his last three games.

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Batting Stats

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2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

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2024 MLB Game Log

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2023 MLB Game Log

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2022 MLB Game Log

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2021 MLB Game Log

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2020 MLB Game Log

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2019 MLB Game Log

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Minor League Game Log

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Batting Order Slot Breakdown

vs Right-Handed Pitchers

vs RHP

vs Left-Handed Pitchers

vs LHP

Left/Right Batting Splits

Since 2023

+11%

OPS vs LHP

2025

+6%

OPS vs RHP

2024

+23%

OPS vs LHP

2023

+1%

OPS vs LHP

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2023vs Left	.850	325	49	15	41	3	.251	.363	.487
Since 2023vs Right	.769	834	114	26	122	2	.263	.345	.423
2025vs Left	.990	23	3	1	1	0	.278	.435	.556
2025vs Right	1.048	38	3	1	11	1	.419	.500	.548
2024vs Left	.876	155	23	8	21	0	.258	.361	.515
2024vs Right	.715	389	54	12	54	1	.244	.314	.401
2023vs Left	.800	147	23	6	19	3	.240	.354	.446
2023vs Right	.796	407	57	13	57	0	.268	.361	.434
More Splits→	View More Split Stats
Minor League Splits→	View Minor League Split Stats

Home/Away Batting Splits

Since 2023

Even Split

2025

+29%

OPS at Home

2024

+16%

OPS on Road

2023

+9%

OPS at Home

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2023Home	.790	577	83	23	87	1	.260	.345	.445
Since 2023Away	.793	582	80	18	76	4	.260	.356	.437
2025Home	1.117	36	4	2	9	1	.419	.472	.645
2025Away	.869	25	2	0	3	0	.278	.480	.389
2024Home	.703	261	37	8	37	0	.226	.318	.385
2024Away	.812	283	40	12	38	1	.268	.336	.476
2023Home	.829	280	42	13	41	0	.271	.354	.475
2023Away	.762	274	38	6	35	3	.250	.365	.397
More Splits→	View More Split Stats

Stat Review

How does Will Smith compare to other hitters?

This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.

BB/K
Walk to strikeout ratio
BB Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
K Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
BABIP
Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
ISO
Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
AVG
Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
OBP
On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
SLG
Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
OPS
On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
wOBA
Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
Exit Velocity
The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
Hard Hit Rate
A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
Barrels/PA
The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
Expected BA
Expected Batting Average.
Expected SLG
Expected Slugging Percentage.
Sprint Speed
The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
Ground Ball %
The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
Line Drive %
The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
Fly Ball %
The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.

BB/K

0.71

BB Rate

16.4%

K Rate

23.0%

BABIP

.471

ISO

.184

AVG

.367

OBP

.475

SLG

.551

OPS

1.026

wOBA

.446

Exit Velocity

88.9 mph

Hard Hit Rate

33.3%

Barrels/PA

4.9%

Expected BA

.268

Expected SLG

.452

Sprint Speed

23.1 ft/sec

Ground Ball %

30.6%

Line Drive %

16.7%

Fly Ball %

52.8%

Prospect Rankings History

View Complete Will Smith Prospect Ranking History

Advanced Batting Stats

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Additional Stats

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Defensive Stats

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Batted Ball Stats

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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers

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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Will Smith See More

Weekly Hitter Rankings: Hits Are in a Rut

4 days ago

Todd Zola figures the two Pennsylvania clubs could boost underwhelming MLB offensive numbers by appearing seven times in the coming week.

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4 days ago

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11 days ago

Red Sox hitters look like strong choices this week with four home games against the Blue Jays followed by an away series at the White Sox.

MLB DFS: DraftKings Plays and Strategy for Friday, April 4

12 days ago

DraftKings top picks include Arizona's Brandon Pfaadt, who pitches Friday against Washington, a team that finished 29th in home runs last season.

Weekly Hitter Rankings: Spotlight on NL Central

17 days ago

Todd Zola debuts his Weekly Hitter Rankings for the season where a couple teams will be playing seven times over the next seven days.

Past Fantasy Outlooks

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

Smith had yet another above average offensive season at the dish, especially when you consider he was the only primary catcher to score at least 80 runs last season and just the fifth catcher to do so in the past 15 seasons joining Realmuto, Posey, Martin, and Mauer. Early on, it appeared that Smith was on his way to a huge season as he went into the break with a .279/.396/.494 triple-slash line with 13 homers and 46 RBIs, but hit .242/.320/.381 with just 6 homers and 30 RBIs after the break. Smith's production and outcomes have been consistently impressive as he handles the strains of trying to slow down opposing running games Dodger pitchers struggled to adjust to the new environment. Smith throws very well, yet the league has swiped 118 bases when he has caught over the past two seasons because he is just one part of the equation. Smith and Realmuto are the only two catcher eligible players with at least 125 games played each of the past three seasons. Invest with confidence.

Perhaps no player in baseball is in a more favorable position than Smith. He was the primary cleanup hitter for a 111-win Dodgers team last season, batting behind the likes of Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman. Smith held up his end of the bargain with 24 homers and 87 RBI across 578 total plate appearances. He shaved nearly four points off his strikeout rate from his first full season in the majors and the bat is arguably worthy of more DH starts in the years to come (24 starts as the designated hitter in 2022). The rigors of catching make it tough for any backstop to stay healthy over the entire season, year-in and year-out, but Smith has now cleared 500 plate appearances in back-to-back campaigns. The batted-ball metrics, while not elite, largely support his outstanding results.

Smith made a statement upon arrival to the majors and has quickly established himself among the top handful of catchers in the league. He's done it by hitting about 25 homers over a full season with an acceptable batting average (career .262). He's had two short seasons and one full one so far and the results have been consistent. While his flyball approach will limit his batting average (career 29.6 GB%), he keeps getting on base with an 11.5 BB%. He has major upside if/when the league implements the designated hitter in the National League. Instead of having to rest on his off days from catching, he can fill in as the DH. Smith has the talent to be the league's top catcher and the big difference between him and the catchers being taken after him is that he can make a huge difference by season's end.

Smith began the season in a timeshare with Austin Barnes. On Aug. 14, he was placed on the IL with a sore neck, slashing just .188/.341/.406 at the time. There were signs Smith would snap out of it as he was only fanning at a 12.2% clip while walking at a 19.5% pace to that point. Smith was back in action after the minimum stay and things began to click. The backstop slashed .329/.427/.646 after returning, playing nearly every day by season's end. He led all catchers over 100 PA with a 163 wRC+, supported by a Statcast ranking in the pertinent categories of at least 80th percentile, most 88th or higher. Smith will be challenged to match that over a full season, and needs to work on his framing, but he's still one of best hitting catchers in the league, slotting in the meat of the Dodgers' lineup. Despite subpar defense, a case can be made for Smith being the second-best catcher in fantasy.

Austin Riley is the first to come to mind when thinking of players who started hot upon arrival before fading, but Smith followed a similar path. After getting the call to be the Dodgers' primary backstop in late July, Smith went off for nine homers in 19 games, driving in 25 runs in 62 at-bats. He then hit .183/.277/.305 over his final 26 regular-season games and ended his year by going 1-for-13 in the NLCS. Smith's strong strikeout rate from Triple-A did not carry over, as he fanned at a 26.5% clip with the major-league team, though it's important to note that Smith has a history of making adjustments and cutting down on his K-rate in his second go at a level. A first-round pick in 2016, Smith has always been able to take a walk and he's a plus behind the plate. There's upside here but downside too, as the Dodgers may not be patient if Smith starts in a similar fashion to how he finished 2019.

More Fantasy News

Clubs second homer

CLos Angeles Dodgers

April 16, 2025

Smith went 2-for-5 with a three-run home run in Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Rockies.